Help the Hospice Conference 2011 my reflections on key speakers

The Help the Hospice 2011 Widening Horizons Conference  in Bournemouth, demonstrated a mix of innovation, best practice and how to operate in the changing NHS climate.

Andrew Lansley Secretary of State for Health set the scene, he spoke of his personal experiences of palliative care and hospice care and that it was about the quality of relationships. He highlighted:

• New standards for EOLC would be released in the autumn
• Voices will be used as an indicator of how well we are doing with end of life care, Voices is a survey conducted with bereaved relatives (this means there will be no emphasis on surveys of patients receiving care)
• He was committed to cut red tape and support the patient statement "no decision about me without me"
• The need for more innovation and encouraged commissioners to listen to patients wishes as who should provide care
• The proposed tariff would be piloted in 25 areas to be completed by 2013 for implementation in 2015.

This changing environment meant that hospices needed to consider:

• That some hospices will be working with many different consortia 
• The "Any Qualified Provider" scenario could result in a poor quality provider 
• That Hospital support teams not part of the picture 
• Joining together.

Dame Barbara Monroe challenged us to think about service redesign and the role of community and volunteers. Her presentation given at Lancaster last year gives you an overview of her ideas. She suggested that there are multiple people who are disadvantaged and do not receive good palliative care. We should

• Think about the family 
• The cost of providing care 
• Look at scale and replicability 
• Focus less on data about current users and more about data from non users
• Change attitudes 
• Create leaders of teams
• Have the courage to have conversations about a time to die
• Focus on the education of nurses - hospices are one  of the few places that uses a traditional model of nursing 
• Not over privilege the psychological above the social, social support can be a priority.